Professional Development Phase Coach Ben King was frustrated after the Under 18s bowed out of the FA Youth Cup.
The Saddlers fell to a 4-0 defeat against Grimsby Town on Tuesday evening but the game was more competitive than the scoreline suggests.
King pinpointed the quality in both penalty boxes as the difference and admitted the result was a tough pill to swallow.
“It’s frustrating,” he said.
“For the most part, we were probably the better team, created a number of chances but the defining part of the night was we haven’t taken our chances.
“The keeper’s pulled off some very good saves and we put some just over, just wide, whilst they’ve had less chances but put them away. That’s the difference, it’s defending our box and scoring in their box which has been the biggest thing.
“It’s a bittersweet one to be honest. You look at the first half, they’ve had two chances and scored two goals.
“We’ve had probably five, six, seven chances, and I mean good quality chances, and just haven’t taken them.
“It’s one of those where you’re happy with the performance in parts, happy with the performance between our box and their box, it’s just bittersweet because it doesn’t look like a competitive game when it was and to some degree, we were better for long stretches of the game and better between the two boxes.”
The Under 18s will be back in action on Saturday with a trip to Scunthorpe United in the EFL Youth Alliance Cup.
With a busy run of fixtures in November, King is looking to make progress and is keen to put Tuesday’s disappointment behind him and urge the team to look forward.
“They’ve been through some tough games and tough experiences in the past, we just have to get on with it now,” he insists.
“We’ve got Scunthorpe on Saturday which is another cup competition, then we’ve got Lye Town coming up which is another cup competition so we’ve got to go and compete in those games.”